Toni only smokes when he can bum one, and Ellie loves him for it even though she never smokes herself, hates the stink of it in her hair, and will wake up tomorrow and swim two miles cold and open-lunged in spite of her hangover as she always does in penance on a Sunday. She loves the way he can flit through any crowd like a godlet, smiling and laughing with strangers, speaking any number of languages, or just enough of all of them that, with his perfect English second, he gets exactly what he wants….
First published in Art House Zine in August 2026.